The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1887-10-01
VERY PIous PEOPLE.
Real Reason Of the Failure OF Plans
to Build Railroads In China.
Providence Journal

Providence Journal1
A great number Of people do not under
stand why it has been impossible to get the
Chinese to accept Railroads. 1t is not only
their bitter antagonism to anything new or
Western. The antagonism is, perhaps, most
emphatically displayed by the literati and
the mandarins, who dread anything that
would tend to make the people more wide
awake to their methods. But the people OPP
pose it from the poorest to the richest, for
the simple reason that any railroad must
necessarily cut through the graves Of their
ancestors, which dot the country all over,
and that they will not permit. You cannot
go far in China across country without COM
ing upon the mounds which contain the re-
mains Of ancestory. You cannot take a drive
along the Babbling Well road out Of Shang-
hal without passing them ON either side Of
the way. And it is only at rare times that
you cannot see coffin standing on trestle
work in the middle of field waiting to be
built over and covered up with earth. Yet
there was a railroad laid in China once. 1t
was a small railroad only Intended to show
the Chinese what kind of thing railroad
is. IL ran for some time but had to be re-
moved. The people who built it built 1t at
their own risk. They bought all the land re-
qutfed for the road, and they bought graves
and all. But the railroad ran through the
lands OF poor people, who were less religious
than usual, and IL took in as few graves as
possible. Partly from that antipathy which
put the prices Of land up all along the line,
and partly because some Of the Chinese OBJ
lected to the railroad not buying them out,
there were constant riots and the engineer
Of the road was nearly killed. But they got
the railroad down. 1t illustrates something
Of the Chinese character. that affair. Per-
mission had been applied for thousands Of
times at Picking. 1t had always been firmly
refused. Brides, threats, entreaties. all
failed. There was legend in China at that
time that the Rothschilds had standing re-
ward of tbs. 100000 for a franchise to lay a
mile OF railroad anywhere in China. The
Taotai OF Shanghai happened to be man
well.inclined towards progress. They beg
ged for influence. He could no nothing; but
he told them: Il am willing to do nothing"
and they took the hint The railroad was
built The Chinese were much taken with it.
But the Company made some kind of an ap-
peal to Peking, and one day the Taotai APP
peared with an order to remove the rail-
road. They demonstrated. He smiled and
said:
II didn't know there was a railroad. /
couldn't take any notice Of what | didn't
know. You gave the information to Picking.
get my instructions, and-you will please
remove the railroad. And the railroad had
to go.
Telegraph are much easier to handle, and
the Chinese have had brief experience of
them at some Of the treaty ports. / remem-
Der when the cable was laid from Hong Kong
to Shanghai. The Chinese officials knew
nothing about it, although ii had to be showed
outside of the limits of the Concession. The
usual honest course had been pursued with
| the usual result-no telegraphs in China
| The Great Northern Telegraph Company
| took it into their heads to lay a cable from
| Hong Kong. They took an office in Shang-
hal. and fitted everything up. They had put
| up telegraph poles all along the road, and
laid wires down to the place of landing.
| They laid the cable up the Wungpoo one
| night in the middle Of the night, made the
| connections and got everything in order.
Here they opened their office and announc-
| ed that the Chinese could economist, send
messages and get replies free Of expense.
| The Chinese crowded the place. The COM
| pany had blocks of Chinese characters all
numbered. A Chinaman selected his char
aeters, and they telegraphed the numbers.
| This was announced to go on for two days.
| 1t only went on one, for the willy Cinnamon
began right away to telegraph for market
| quotations and getting them, and the China
men were making money out OF 1t few
hours after 1t opened. great many changes
may have come since then, but even years of
| experience with the Hong Kong cable did
| not stir up any desire of extension of the tel
| egraph system. The first movement Of an
/ official kind in the matter came during the
IL
/ That incident is of itself funny enough to re-
call. A shipwreckeG crew Of Japanese
| junk had been badly treated by one of the
| tribes on F0rmosa. The Japanese addressed
the Chinese, to whom Formosa was tributary
to punish their subjects The Chinese, as
usual, kept putting off, until the Japanese,
| who have a healthy contemptfor their neigh
bors, who fear them as much, il not more,
| than any Western nation, got mad and said
| If they did not proceed at once, they would
| punish the Form0sas themselves. The Chi
| nese, glad to get out Of a diagreeable task,
said Go ahead" The Japanese sent down
| a small army, subdued the tribes, punished
| the guilty and made treaties with the favor
ably disposed. Then they notified the Chi
nese to send down soldiers, take possession
and ratify all treaties. The Chinese reply
| was automatically expressed. but 1t meant
| get out of Formosa now" The Japanese
| replied equally automatically to this effect,
| Come down and put me out.,' The Chinese
went down, but the Japanese "guyed" their
troops, and laughed at them. The upshot
was that the Japanese, who were satisfied at
| first TO go out without recompense had to be
/ paid 100000 taels for the expenses of their
excursion, and 1t was the fact that the Jap
| anese were getting instructions from Toxic
| by telegraph all the time that just awoke the
| Chinese Government to the value of tele-
graphs. But they did not go very far.